Last thoughts on ICT in the class room...

Well I reckon I would be lost with out the use of ICT in the class room! It is such a useful and easy way to get so many things done, from research to record keeping.

We are now living in a world where the use of ICT has gotten to the point that it plays a major role in our every day lives that we actually have a responsibility to incorporate it into our teaching practice. We need to be able to teach our students not only to be same on the web but also how to be savvy.

I think that one of the most important things that, as a history teacher, I will ever teach my students is how to conduct meaningful research. I want my students to be able jump online and have the ability to sort through the crap that is online and be able to make informed judgement and opinions about the data and information they find.

I can imagine that with in every discipline there is a need to incorporated ICT. It is exciting (and a little daunting) to think that even what we are teaching now, and think is cutting edge will be out dated and remade into something better by the time our students enter the work force.

ICT is the way if the future, we need to embrace it!

Autism and ICT

Autism and ICT

While on my last placement I had, what turned out to me the amazing opportunity to teach a boy with autism. At first it was somewhat of a daunting challenge to come up with strategies that included him in the lessons and enabled him to use his particular skills. For the purpose of this post lets call him Steve. Steve was a very talented drawer, and he love to redesign characters out of his favorite video games. In the English class that I taught him he often spent a lot of time drawing and working on ICT projects.

Below are some of the sketches that Steve did of video characters.

This got me thinking, what are the possibilities after school for students like Steve? Steve's father came to the parent teacher interview and I was able to talk to him about what he though Steve might do after school. His dad told me how talented he was with computers, which I already knew, and the he saw that there would probably be potential for him to work in the ICT industry, perhaps designing games and especially coming up with the graphics and characters.
I thought that this would be a fantastic possibility for Steve.

Then I got to further thinking about the how we teach students with Autism across the board. I think it is safe to say that some schools get it right and other are a little lost with what to do. With this in mind I went and visited the Autistic School in Mansfield to find out how best to facilitate students with autusisms learning. What I found was that across the board the higher functioning students loved activities that involved ICT. They were able to pick it up relatively fast and were good at learning programs and that it was a fantastic way to get them to learn. The school provided me with some great ideas of things that I could get Steve to try. It was with these ideas that I went back to the class room to see what I could get Steve to do.

For a unit of horror in english I suggested that as Steve knew a lot about editing movies he team up with one of the groups that were doing a movie for their project and offer to do the editing. This was a great success and the movie turned out really well.

All of the research that I found was positive towards the inclusion of ICT in the classroom with autistic students as it was a way to bridge gaps and help them to become included as well as giving them some practical skills to take with them after school.

Below is a website that I found particularly useful.
http://www.senteacher.org/Links/

I took this

Link to VELS post

Below is the link to my comment on a VELS post.

http://rodgersruralrampage.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/vels-ict-task/#comment-2

English Micro Teaching...

*News Flash*

In English today we were shown this neat website:

www.newsmap.jb

It's pretty useful, check it out!

Following is the activity that the micro teaching group got the class to do.

Providing info on a website we were led to:

What we typed in: Famine

What headline drew our attention: Somali famine a many-headed beast

How did this heading capture our attention: It made mw think of the three headed dog that guarded the philosophers stone in Harry Potter.

Why did the heading pursued us to read the article:

For us it was really the Harry Potter simile that drew us in. Then we were drawn in my the plight of the Somalians.

here is a screenshot:

ICT & VELS

“ICT supports knowledge-building among teams and enables team members to collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding.”

In my history classroom, I and my students, use ICT on a regular, if not daily basis. History is all about finding, questioning and interrogating sources to build knowledge and develop understanding.

Being able to use the internet is a valuable tool in the history classroom. Students love any opportunity to get on a computer and surf the web, so my theory is why not let them, and incorporate it into your lessons. Also, it lets the students have the opportunity to take control of what they are learning  (“students plan their investigations, and report on their findings” VELS level 5 History). I find that if the students have the opportunity to research a topic themselves (with a bit of a nudge in the right direction from me!) then they are able to take in more of the subject and deeper understanding and appreciation as well as taking ownership of their learning.

When you incorporate ICT into team activities you can easily see that it is such a valuable tool. As the VELS quote states, it does enable team members collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding. Computers, the internet and the myriad of other ICT is such fantastic way to foster an appreciation for learning and education. 

Back from rural!

Well, I just got back from my rural placement. Just quietly it was a pretty wicked experience! It has given me some interesting things to think about in the ICT sector. Obversely ICT is used differently in all schools but it was quite interesting to observe how it impacted on my teaching style and techniques. Anyway, when I collect my thoughts in to a wiz bang post all shall be revealed!

ICT week 2

Righteo, week two and we're making mini movies...
I can see how this would be most fun for students to do. I could get students to make little paper (lightening) animations in History.

Blog number one...

Well fellow Melb Uni ICT peeps, here is my first blog post. Yep it's a winner.
Thoought number 1 on ICT in education:
I think it will change the face of education!

s